Moving On
by NotJustAnotherGirl
Summary: Life is different after the war and Ellie is trying to make things work. She wants to lead a normal life and move on from the war, but it's harder than she expected, especially when others wont let you. Set after the third Ellie Chronicles book.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It was halfway through the first lesson on Monday. Jess and I had history with Miss Marshall. I got to class a few minutes late because my locker was being difficult and my combination didn't work. As I walked into class ten minutes late the teacher handed me a detention slip as I knew she would. The seat next to Jess was taken and I didn't really know anyone else in the class so I sat by myself near the window instead.

I had zoned out while Miss Marshall read out the school notices. I was staring out the window at the playground but wasn't focusing on anything in particular, thinking about the strange world I now lived in. We were only months out of a war and yet things were slowly returning to normal. I mean businesses were up and running again, TV stations were coming back on air, sports had resumed and many people were more worried about what the weather would be tomorrow than the new country just kilometres away that had invaded us. Of course not everything was back to the way it used to be. There are way more people than before and people you know like Mum, Dad, Corrie and Robyn are dead and craters from bombs set off in the war are still around. Yet here we are worrying about stupid things, it just doesn't make sense.

I noticed a movement out of the corner of my eye, but assumed that it was a bird or something. When I saw the movement again, I turned to face it. I wasn't suspicious but just curious. What I saw definitely made me suspicious. I was shocked and horrified to see soldiers creeping stealthily through the playground. I could tell immediately that they were from the other side of the border.

There were heaps of them. I'd say about a hundred but maybe more. They moved with such determination that I knew they weren't here for a random raid. I knew they were specifically looking for something. Or someone.

I was immediately filled with terror. It's not that I wasn't scared before, I was of course, but it was just a normal kind of fear. The same as I guessed anyone else would feel in my position. A fear that something could happen to you but not that you were the specific target. But now I felt a new kind of fear. The fear of knowing you are the direct target of so many focused, determined, armed soldiers. It was the worst feeling I've ever had.

"Miss Marshall, I think-," I started, pointing out the window, still trying to make sense of what was happening. I never finished that sentence. As I turned back to the window I saw one of the soldiers face tense as he realised I was pointing to him. He shouted something, dropped to his knee and lifted his rifle with me in his sights.

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	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Get down!" I screamed and everyone immediately flattened themselves to the floor. It wasn't a moment to soon as a bullet shattered the window above me and lodged itself in the wall opposite. Glass from the window cascaded from the frame and stuck into my leg and back and I winced with pain.

By then the room was filled with screams and shouts of fear, pain and surprise. The class started to crawl to the door. I knew there was no point in that because there was no way to escape with the soldiers advancing towards us from that direction but no one listened when I tried to tell them. They were too focused on trying to get to safety that they didn't care what anyone else said.

As the room started to clear, i noticed Jess across the room tightly gripping her leg. I made my way towards her and as i got closer i noticed there was blood pouring from between her fingers.

"Ellie, help me! Please!" she said desperately as i reached her.

She moved her hand and there was a square chunk of her leg missing with blood pouring from the hole. I knew i had to act fast before the soldiers got there. I glanced around the room looking for an idea. As my gaze passed the windows i got one.

"Wait here," i said and started a mad dash between the desks to the windows before she could reply. I ran, bent so far over that i was almost crawling and ducked below the window sill. I stuck one hand up and began to pull the curtain down. Luckily it came quickly and easily.

I snuck a look through the window and saw half a dozen soldiers making their way quickly to our classroom. More groups were going to other classes too. They must have seen me because just as i ducked back down i was showered with more glass from another shot window.

Again i ran to Jess. This time though, i hit my bad knee on a table leg. It stirred up a whole new lot of pain to add to the stinging of the glass in my legs.

I reached jess and tied the curtain around her leg like a bandage. She yelped in pain when i pulled it tight but didn't complain. I still had no idea what had happened but finding that out would defiantly have to wait.

"Jess, the soldiers are almost here. If they know who we are, they're sure to kill us on the spot. It's too late to escape so just cooperate and keep your head down," I told her. She looked at me with an expression of terror and didn't reply. I gave her a quick hug and we crawled over to everyone else.

"What should we do Ellie?" asked a girl in my class. Everyone looked at me expectantly. It was obvious that they thought i would come up with some great plan because of what i did in the war, but i couldn't think of anything.

"Just cooperate. And pretend i'm not Ellie. It's too dangerous for all of us if they know i'm here."

Miss Marshall was just turning the handle of the door when the soldiers burst into the room. Everyone gasped because they didn't know they were going to come into the room.

While most of us sat there stunned, a few of the boys in the class turned and made a beeline for the shattered windows. A soldier yelled in poor English, "Stop right there or we will shoot!"

But they kept going despite the threat. The soldier then proved that they meant what they said as he shot the window above the boys head. Honestly, I ought to keep a tally of the amount of windows they shot. They'd shot three already.

Two of the soldiers ran to the boys and tied their hands behind their backs. They slapped, punched and kicked the boys until they fell curled up in a bloody mess trying to protect themselves. No one said a word but jess had to hold my arm to keep me from running at them and giving them a piece of my mind.

"Do what we say or worse will happen," a different soldier said.

The other four soldiers tied the rest of us together. Jess and i kept our heads down so they wouldn't recognise us.

As we were marched to the school hall, Jess tripped over because of her leg. I helped her up and a soldier whacked her in the cheek with the butt of his rifle. Blood started to pour out of her mouth but she didn't make a sound. The soldier turned to me and i thought i saw a hint of recognition on his face but it disappeared immeadiately. He bashed me in the shoulder and that, too, started to bleed.

By the time we reached the hall almost the whole school was inside. The soldiers took all our electronics and valuables, just as much for loot as to stop us contacting someone outside the school. After being searched, we were pushed through the doors.

Once the entire school was inside, the leader of the group stood on the stage to speak, "There are only two things you need to know about what is going on here and they are that you must cooperate or you may not come out of this well and do not try to escape or contact people outside of the school or we will shoot you. This operation may be quick but depending on how you behave, it could be long and horrible. Your choice. For the meantime, you are free to go anywhere in this hall, but don't cause trouble."

As he stepped down from the stage and began speaking with a few of his soldiers, one of the girls in year 9 stood up. After letting of a string of swear words at the soldiers and demanding to be released, she picked up a pair of scissors from her pencil case and threw them straight at the soldiers. They dodged them and two soldiers grabbed her arms and dragged her, screaming, onto the stage. As they beat her up, the soldier who had spoken earlier said, "If you didn't understand the first time, cooperate and you should be fine. If not, well," he glanced over his shoulder at the girl who lay there bleeding and crying, "you might not be so fine."

He signalled to the men and half the soldiers left through the back doors, leaving us to contemplate what to do.

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	3. Chapter 3

The one thing I could think of, as people wandered around the hall looking for people or sitting in groups crying or hugging, was Gavin. I had to know if he was ok. My mind raced, always thinking of the worst. "Assume the worst, but hope for the best," is one of the ways I got through the war. I had to prepare myself for the worst but never lose hope that things would be all right. And the worst that I could think of was if Gavin was hurt or killed.

I looked around the room, once again, and watched the chaos of students repeating the names of their brothers or sisters as they searched frantically through the crowd. A group of boys who had protested, lay slumped over each other in the corner as the soldiers added a last few kicks to their injuries.

Every second person was crying, or holding an injured arm, or face, or leg.

Just when I had thought life might finally go back to how it was before the war, I realised we were suddenly thrown back into the danger, and the thrill and adrenaline rush that would come with it. I wasn't sure if I was ready for it again though.

I shook my head and focused on the one thing that was important right now, finding Gavin. He was the only family I had left. I didn't want to lose him, but with the huge amount of people at the school since the war, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. I wandered around pushed through endless groups of people.

I knew that, even though he copes quite well with it, Gavin's deafness could have gotten him in trouble. If he didn't understand what the soldiers were telling them to do they may think he was uncooperative and be punished. As my gaze passed over the hall I sent up a silent prayer that he would be okay. The next thing I knew, strong arms had wrapped around my waist and Gavin spun me around to face him.

Someone must have heard my prayer and answered it.

"Gavin! Are you all right? Did they hurt you?"

"I'm fine. Where are the others?" He replied in his throaty voice. Besides a few scratches and bruises he looked fine so I concentrated on his question. Scanning the room once more, I spotted the rest of our group on the side of the stage, partially hidden by the curtains.

Jess, Gavin and I hobbled over to them. With a busted knee, gushing leg, aching shoulder and bleeding face between us, it was slow going. We must have been a strange sight.

Nearing the group, Fi turned and saw us.

"Oh Ellie! Jess! What happened? Are you ok?" She ran over and helped us up the steps and lowered us gently to the ground.

"They bashed us when Jess tripped over." I replied bluntly. We had more important things to worry about than where we got hurt.

As Fi bandaged Jess' bleeding leg with her scarf, I remembered that I still hadn't asked what happened.

"How did you hurt your leg Jess?"

" I ducked as soon as you yelled and I heard the first shot. I don't really know what happened next, but there was a rush of people to the door and someone knocked over my table. Someone else must have knocked it back the other way because the leg of it sliced straight into my leg. She grimaced as she recalled the damage to her leg.

"Ellie, get over here!" Homer called to me from a few meters away.

I hobbled over and found what looked like a war council, and it might well have been. Homer, Kevin, Lee, Bronte and Gavin were in a circle discussing the situation and trying to think of ways to escape.

"We could attack them. I'm sure we would be able to find some things to use as weapons around somewhere," Lee said.

"The old sets from when we did that musical a few years back are still in the drama cupboard next to the bathrooms at the back of the hall. There were lots of planks of wood there and some metal poles that held up the sets," Fi contributed.

"We can organise the older kids and teachers and take them by surprise. There aren't that many of them," Lee continued.

"There's no way that's going to work," I interrupted, "There are heaps of them. Dozens and dozens. They streamed through the gates like a plague of rats. We can't fight them all and anyway, they have guns."

The group was silent for a few minutes, thinking over what I had just said and starting to lose hope.

"Well, if we cant get rid of them, we're just going to have to escape," I said, earning a sly grin from Gavin.

"What did you have in mind?" Bronte asked.

I just gave her a slight smile, "Wait 'til you hear this."

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	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Sorry for the wait. I wasn't sure how to write this chapter to include all it had to have. Two year 10 kids interrupted our planning. They looked similar with the same tan skin, brown eyes and light brown hair. The girl was tall and slim. She had a pretty face and seemed genuine. I had seen her around the school and she seemed shy. The boy on the other hand, was the complete opposite. He was tall and well built. I knew that he was on all the sports teams and was always bright and energetic.

"Excuse me," the boy said as they approached the group, "My name's Sam and this is my twin sister, Grace. We did a bit of stuff like you in the war and want to help you get rid of these guys."

Grace looked nervous and glanced around the group.

"How do you know we're planning on doing anything?" Homer asked suspiciously.

"I read your books," he said looking at me, "and you always did something. You didn't wait around to see what would happen. You can't just do nothing. Especially with all these people depending on you."

"No pressure or anything," Kevin muttered sarcastically.

"Suppose we were planning on doing something. How could you help us?" Lee asked.

"Like I said, we did some stuff like yours and managed to survive. Our Dad was in the army before the war so we picked up some stuff off him. We know what we're doing and with us working together we should be able to come up with a great plan."

"What sort of stuff did you do in the war? Were you caught or did they miss you?"

"We escaped from the showgrounds after we knocked out two guards. We took their guns and stole a Ute. We were chased by one truck but escaped them and killed them. We basically lived in the bush. Just the two of us but we picked off some soldiers here and there. We lived on a farm most of our lives so we knew how to use anfo to blow up a factory that was manufacturing ammo in the city," Sam said.

It was then that I realised Grace hadn't said a word. She just stared at her shoes, glancing up occasionally and looking around the group.

"Ok sit down, Ellie's come up with a start of a plan. You can help us fix it up," Bronte said, taking charge.

Sam and Grace sat down, with Grace next to me. She didn't speak much, except to her brother who then told her idea to the rest of us.

"I'm Ellie," I said quietly to her.

"I know," she said with a slight smile, looking down at her shoes.

Wow, she is shy. I thought.

"Your brother said it was only the two of you living in the bush during the war. What about your parents?"

There was an expression of pain on her face when I mentioned it, but it disappeared almost immediately. She didn't answer and I decided to leave her for now.

I got back to the conversation and heard Bronte saying, "So when Ellie and Gavin reach the oval, they'll escape through the trees to the right, jump the fence and get the police."

After we finalised our plans, we separated to prepare ourselves for what lay ahead. Grace and I were sitting on the steps of the stage hidden by the curtains. We sat in silence going through the plan in our heads and worrying over what would happen.

"I'm sorry about your parents," Grace said quietly, breaking the silence. "I heard what happened to them."

"Thanks."

After a short pause she asked, "Do you… Do you ever feel like you could have stopped it from happening?"

"All the time. Every time I think of them I just think 'What if I were there?' I could have saved them or they could have just killed me instead! I'm the one they wanted! I'm the one they were after! Not them. It's so unfair! They never did anything!"

After my outbreak, there was silence and I realised how worked up I had gotten. "Sorry," I said.

"No, I know how you feel. You know how you asked about my parents earlier? The soldiers killed them too. I saw both my parents die in front of my eyes," She had a calm face with no emotion but her eyes were full of pain and grief, "We were at home and the soldiers came in. We didn't know we had been invaded yet. It happened so quickly. Dad went off his head at these guys breaking in and acting like they owned the place. They began pulling me and Mum into the back of the truck but it was hard because we were struggling so much. Dad was yelling and attacking the soldiers but two of them eventually stopped him. Sam wasn't there, he was at a mates and we found him at the showgrounds later, so he didn't see it but I remember it clear as day. Dad had knocked one guy around pretty bad. He was lying in a pool of blood and unconscious, so they took Dad and held him near the back of the truck in our view and shot him. Just like that. He stared at me as he died. His eyes were so sad and regretful just before they shot him. I know he thought he failed us because he couldn't protect us. I feel like I should have been able to stop them and help him, but I couldn't. I felt so helpless."

"I'm so sorry. I felt the exact same way when I found my parents. Like it was my fault and I could have stopped it," I said, devastated for Grace and Sam.

"It was hard but at least I still had Mum and Sam. We helped each other bear the pain. But a few months later, Sam was beat up by some soldiers for having a go at one of them. Mum ran over and threw some hard punches. They grabbed her and tried to stop her but she kept going. She was trying to protect Sam but again it didn't work. They shot her when trying to break her off one of the soldiers and she was gone. My brother and I were alone. After that the soldiers targeted us. They beat us for no reason and gave us the worst of everything. Clothes, food, toiletries. They kept bashing us up for no reason and Sam was worried for me so we escaped."

"I'm so sorry. I don't know what to say."

"I used to be more like my brother. Outgoing, fun, brave. But I'm not any more. I just feel guilty. I can't be myself. I feel like I can't have any fun or do anything besides think about my parents. It's all I can do for them."

"I know what you mean. But-"

Our little deep and meaningful conversation was interrupted by Sam running up to us.

"You have to come quick. The others are starting another meeting."

We ran over and Homer began.

""It seems as though we're going to have to get this started sooner than planned…"

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